Intuitive Eating

So.. i am recovering from anorexia and overeating... im not longer at an unhealthy weight, ( 5'9 123 lbs 16 yrs old) but i do find myself eating past hunger!
anyone want to try intuitive eating with me, if you have heard of it?

if not check out www.intuitiveeating.org

thanks
!

I am also recovering from an ED, and I also tend to overeat..and I am also now a healthy weight 5 ft 3/4 in and 98 lbs. But with me, I limit my calories way too much during the day still and then when night time rolls around and I realize I haven't had close to enough calories I usually try and fill that void, someties with too much food, and it just makes me upset and frusterated.

I just went to that website and read all about it, and I would love to try it with you! It looks amazing.

I'm in, but this is completely new to me, too.  I've visited the website and I think this is exactly what I've been trying to do, just didn't know how to "define it."  I'm 5'6" and 137, I have been struggling with binging and I know the main reason I binge is emotional.  I eat relatively well until I get stressed, then I go way over board on "bad" things...like sweets.  I've been trying to change my mindset, but didn't know how.  Thanks

Thank you for that website! I have been recovering from BED for several months now (and making positive gains :)) and this is exactly what I have been trying to "teach myself." I have bookmarked that website for reminder/motivation, and am tagging htis post so we can help each other along this journey. Once again, thank you!

I was just on that site, reading one of the studies that suggested hunger-based intuitive eating is BETTER for weight management than strict control.  I'm nowhere near underweight and have been way more orthorexic (not really a diagnosis, but obsessed with control, proper nutrition, amount of calories, carbs, etc) than classically restrictive.  But I NEED to start relaxing, start realizing that it's time to listen to what my BODY wants to eat, not what careful calculations suggest I should have next.

I'm so very there, but may not check in (I'm trying to cut out reading any sort of weight-related website from my reading list as part of the whole recovery thing - though a post about obesity on one of my econ blogs lead me astray!).  Honestly, I think being in touch with one's body is the way to do it.

Though I'm terrified.  I even confided in my boyfriend that I was scared he'd leave me if I gained a few pounds (and um... he lives with me.  it's not really a superficial relationship).  His response: "you know what would be worse than gaining weight?  continuing to talk about food all the time."

I've just started reading a book on intuitive eating (also trying to recover from an ED).  It looks like it has some useful pointers.  Authors are: Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch

LOL just realised it's the website of the authors of that book! Sorry!

Hey,
  I think that I've known for a long time that intuitive eating is where I want to be. It's just not where I am. I am 5'4" and weight 139-141lbs. I am a very dense person with a lot of muscle, and have lost about 20 lbs from my high of a few years ago. Some of this has been done the right way - I've started running and I make healthier choices about food now. But I also have periods where I don't let myself go above 1300 for the day, or starve myself all day only to binge (and very occasionally purge) in the evenings. I've never been diagnosed with an eating disorder, but honestly, that just feels like a technicality.
   Right now I'm training for a half marathon and have felt like I've been "binging" all day long... but my weight has stayed steady, so I might just be hungry from running. I haven't logged for 10 days (until today) which was a major accomplishment. I have trouble not logging calories here, it ties into bigger issues of self-worth/control/etc. and in the end is not about how I feel about how my body looks at all, really. But it is.
   Infinity on Trial -- I've been reading your post about Letting Go without Letting Go, and it has *me too* written all over it. Also, I work for two economists... teehee
  
So, yes, eating, food being a friend and fuel and not an enemy. I want that. I don't know if I can get it here since, for me, part of it is about not logging food or weight... but support would be good.

Imogene - I definitely feel that we're very similar in body type / the way we lost weight / the issues we're having.  And it's HARD to realize the good things in that.

But the intuitive eating is helping.  It'd be a lie to say I don't have hard times.  That I'm not often totally paranoid about gaining a TON of weight now or losing control of my good habits or tendency to crave healthy things.  The trying to eat more during the day makes me paranoid that I'll still be as hungry at night, still eat as much, and be less vigilant.  Once or twice a day, I try to do a mental tally, try to figure out if it *should* be time to eat rather than if I'm hungry and what my body is hungry for.

The other thing that makes it difficult is the other aspects of eating.  I'm lucky in that I'm not much of an emotional eater (and my comfort food is really spicy stuff, so frozen vegetables with tabasco sauce does the trick as well as anything else).  But eating is still a social thing.  Last night I didn't *want* Indian food.  In fact, I wasn't all that hungry yet.  But my friend had a 9 pm train and we had to eat before 7:30 and everyone else wanted Indian.  But part of what I want to accomplish is letting go of this need for control, this being a pain in the butt to myself and everyone else every time food comes up.  So I served myself very small portions of what we were sharing.  Turns out they were too small - was still hungry - ate more.  On one hand, I feel like I probably ate too much.  I'd had a snack a couple hours before and a rich dinner the previous night.  But at the same time, I never felt full anywhere resembling stuffed.  Just satiated, maybe somewhere between satiated and approaching full.  So I must have been okay.

What I've found really helps is focusing on sensations.  If I'm not feeling full I didn't eat too much (assuming I ate because I was hungry).  If I'm not feeling satisfied, I probably ate too little.  I had Indian last night and rich cajun food (homemade, but my boyfriend's brother works in a restaurant and I have never seen as much oil as was on his shrimp on home-cooked food before).  Didn't stuff myself on either, but I'd normally feel guilty eating two days in a row like that.

I backslid a little and measured myself, and I hadn't gotten any bigger.  Which... shouldn't be focusing on that so much.  So instead I'm focusing on how I feel.  And my body - my physical body, not my mind or guilt or anxiety - feels kind of gross.  It feels like if I eat one more big, rich, buttery meal, it will go into serious revolt for a couple days.  I just don't want that food today.  Or probably tomorrow either.

So, yeah, let the physical feelings be your guide.  They're as good if not better than the mental ones, as long as you tune into them and don't stop to think about the number of calories or hours since the last time you ate.  The physical cues are BETTER because they're based on what your body needs, not what you think your body should need.  The difficulty is in seperating them from the mental ones telling you that chocolate tastes good or that steak is a bad food or that girls shouldn't eat so much even if they did just go running.

Thank you so much for starting this topic.  I had never heard of intuitive eating, and when I read your first post I thought "THAT is what I've been trying to do, but didn't know where to start."  I went to the website and read all about it, then went and bought the book.  Reading I really feel like the book is speaking directly to me!  I have been trying to incorporate what the book says into my life, which means not counting cals, not counting portions, not weighing/measuring everything I eat, not weighing myself (that one has been hard), and listening to what my body tells me it needs.  Thinking back this is the way I used to live before going on a diet and losing 20 lbs, and I was a much happier person!  So thank you, and I know it will be hard at times and easier at times...so I really appriciate the support!

Anyone who hasn't read the book by the author's of the website, I strongly recommend it.  It gives a lot more detail, examples and insite on how to really move into intuitive eating.

So interesting to hear what everyone is saying here!

Infinity- thank you for your encouragement and thoughts. I think you are right to think about focusing on sensations and how our bodies feel as strong and fast (you run too, yes?). When I am in my worst of places I am dismorphic enough that those things don't line up, but I think that I also have enough good days to train myself around that. Running and exercising also helps me with that because my body will tell me very strongly if I have failed to fuel myself for a run properly.

Balancing the social aspects of food is always hard, especially living in a house with three other women who all have very different "stories" around food, both good and bad.

I'm still weighing myself a lot. Like every two days, but it feels so comforting to see that line on my excel sheet just continue across the horizon (with its little blips, of course). I reached a new low the last two times days, and now my trendline is solidly below 139, weight of 137. I really can't remember the last time I weighed this much, and I have to say that it is scary. Scary because now it is a lower low to maintain, scary because I have been trying hard to not lose. Scary because I now don't know what I should do about food, I don't want to use this new low to backslide on habits... I feel like I've given my body these very narrow parameters to stay between and either above or below freaks me out -- which is almost healthy, but not.

Ok. This is really long, and I need to go to work. But I also needed to tap it out. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

I get somewhat dysmorphic as well.  It's particularly hard since I live somewhere where there's a ton of young, VERY thin women and there's a lot of value placed on that.  Sometimes I feel like if I didn't live where I do, it'd be EASY to get my head screwed on straight about this.  But I weighed myself once two weekends ago, since I was at my parents', discovered that more food lead to feeling better, had houseguests, and ate what I considered pretty decadently all week.  Visited my parents again and my weight was the same (and still the lowest it's been since high school).  My body really does seem to be adjusting by running better.

The housemate thing is hard.  I live with my boyfriend who in some ways is a good influence (he would harangue me if he saw me measuring or weighing food or eating nothing but veggies).  But he has the metabolism of a slug and rarely eats before he's been awake for HOURS.  Then he's starved himself all day and eats a big dinner.  It's kind of scary for me to know he might want to order in something rich when I've been purposefully eating more during the day so I'm not starved at night.  But I find that not being starved all day *does* make it easier to eat a reasonable portion and stop when done at dinnertime.

I do also run and I am starting to lift, too, which helps even more.  Possibly because generally enjoy it a LOT, or because I can feel the increase in ability when I pick up the weights and throughout the workout rather than at the end like with a run (if I'm outside and don't know my precise pace). 

When the social stuff gets me down, I remember that the idea isn't just to listen to my body, it's to let go of this obsession with food and nutrition.  So getting busy and social and not eating the second my body says to (unless it starts off by shouting) are okay things to do.

So maybe there's two things to concentrate on.  Not just the way your body feels - starved or powerful, fast or strong or slow or dizzy or aching.  But also on life beyond this meal and that snack.  Food as fuel for workouts and life rather than something life should revolve around, either for enjoyment or control.

Hi everyone, I've really enjoyed reading the posts.  It's nice to know I'm not the only one who still struggles some.  I finished reading the book and it helped me understand just how to fit this in and change old ways.  I'm doing pretty good, still dealing with some emotional eating, but nowhere near where I was.  My husband says he can tell I'm happier and not as stressed all the time.  It's nice not to have to plan every meal and snack and know that whatever I'm hungry for is ok:)  In fact I just had spaghetti for breakfast:)  I haven't done that since high school.  Cool thing was I just emptied the bowl on a plate and didn't eat all of it just because it was there.  I stopped when I was comfortably full, which is totally new for me:)

Anyway thanks, again!

I was just wondering - is anyone having issues adjusting to intuitive eating? For example, yesterday i was doing really well with listening to my body's signals for hunger/fullness, and actually today I would have, too. But I seriously underate yesterday and just wasn't hungry for more (i forced down a nectarine right before bed to try to help) and today I had to forcefeed myself all day because food wasn't even tasting good when I had it in my mouth. It's like my body is rebelling against food? So I dunno if other people are experiencing the same thing (lack of hunger signals, lack of enjoyment of food - and I'm a pretty good cook! so the food is GOOD)

But, is there some way we can support each other on this? I mean, I was finally able to force down a decent amount of food today, but it doesn't make up for yesterday's tiny tiny amount (I'm overestimating at 800 cals) and my workout today. Is this okay? What should I do? I don't want my body to set me up for a binge later (I'm a recovering BED, btw.) Any insight would be helpful - thank you! And good luck!

p.s., this way of living def feels more free, though! Even tho this weekend I ate hardly, it felt good not to be obsessed and driven by a false need to eat. :)

sarah2286-  I totally understand.  I'm having trouble with "listening" to my body as well.  It's like I go from not hungry at all to starved, never feeling the in-between stages.  Then I have trouble recognizing when I'm full, until I've gone past full.  I feel like I can't distinguish it anymore.  But if you read the book by the authors of the website they say it takes an adjustment period, so hang in there.  I've been trying to "Make Peace with Food" and feel like I eat everything in site...I'm afraid of slipping into bad habits of eating bad most of the time and good some of the time.  So this week I'm trying to focus on eating healthy and listening to my body.  We'll see how it goes.

Oh, yes, I'm finding it HARD to read signals, too.  And I'm not even coming from a health-threatening eating disorder - just being anal-retentive about nutrition and body image to the point where it felt very disordered.

I'm having a lot of trouble paying attention to my hunger without continuing to be obsessive about food.  I've also found that there's different types of hungry (blood sugar hunger, stomach hunger) and different types of full.  I can feel bloated and stuffed yet still have my blood sugar screaming.  I can feel like my stomach is full up on water and roughage but still begging me for food.  It can be incredibly frustrating.

The idea of being able to eat ANYTHING is scary.  Before I had Food Issues (tm), I was put on a no-simple-carbs-whatsoever diet in order to manage these weird blood sugar issues.  Before that, I spent six years as a vegan.  No rules besides eat what I feel like I want to be eating?!  Scary! 

Part of me is TERRIFIED of gaining weight back again.  I think it's mostly paranoia, but I'm not sure.  I know that until I let go of that fear, I won't be able to truly listen to my body, but I can't bring myself to do it.

I also go from "meh, maybe I'm hungry, maybe I'm not" to "I am going to pass out from lack of food" incredibly suddenly.  I've found that since I started running a couple years ago (and to some extent before that), I'm hungry more than 50% of the time.  And I can't eat 50% of the time!

I do really appreciate having people to discuss this with, even as I'm trying to avoid almost all diet-related websites because it triggers the obsessive thoughts about.

I guess I'm back to check in from the start of my intuitive eating.

I have been doing it for about a week and I FEEL AMAZING.

To anyone trying it, keep up the hard work, it is completely worth it =]

Happy health!

That's awesome, finallymeagain!

I have moments where it all works, but it's hard.  I also feel like I'm going against pretty much every bit of nutritional advice out there, between trying to forget calories and nutrition and eat intuitively and trying to cut down on anxiety-based vegetable abuse.

Hopefully I'll be able to let go of this idea that even if my set point ends up being a few pounds heavier than I am now, it's the end of the world.  I keep feeling like I must be gaining weight (because I am paranoid) even as my clothes are fitting the same.  But I promised my nutritionist I wouldn't step on a scale until I saw her again.  But ack!  The idea of wanting to get to the weight my body will be at when I eat mostly healthy and am not usually hungry rather than "must stay thin and healthy" feels like a criminalized sentiment in our society.

infinityontrial- I totally understand where you are coming from.  I do not have an ED background either, just obsessive about being "perfect" on my diet and sticking to the rules set for me.  I have a lot of trouble recognizing my hunger signals and can go from maybe I am to "I HAVE TO EAT RIGHT NOW!" so quickly that it surprises me. 

I also have been going for about a week of eating lots of not so healthy foods, high fat, high cals, high sugar.  Its like give me permission to eat whatever and all I eat is junk!  I'm trying to focus on how I feel and make better choices, because I know I feel better when I eat better, but I'm struggling.  Any suggestions???

I just wanted to take a poll of the posters on this thread:  if you exercise, do you find yourselves getting disappointed on exercise days when you're NOT hungry to eat?  Also...if you allow yourself a day off, do you find yourself more at peace if you can't clear your plate or aren't hungry for seconds?  I guess what I'm getting at is...if you use intuitive eating, then there are no restrictions...you just eat until you're full.  But when I work out, sometimes I feel cheated when I can't eat as much as I'd like to...so...so I try to get in at least 2000 calories a day (which is hard), while working out every day...or do I let up on the exercise, and intuitively eat (meaning, eat when I'm hungry and not on a set schedule).  I think that's what thin people do.  I watch my mother eat, and she eats whatever she wants, whenever she wants, as long as she's hungry enough to eat it.  She typically never eats dessert right after dinner, because she's too full, and if she has a dessert, she really only eats until she feels full...I've rarely ever seen her finish a dessert.  Now, nothing is forbidden to her...toast with butter...Big Macs...fudge...chicken fingers...but the thing is...she really knows when her hunger is satiated.  So...is this the key to maintaining a healthy weight?  Knowing when to say no?

I think that's the idea, katopang.  I think it's also easier to tell hunger from satiety (and healthier) when one bases his/her diet around whole foods rather than the processed stuff.

And I'm ALWAYS hungry to eat on excercise days.  My boyfriend has trained himself over the years (as he calls it - I call it destroying his metabolism) to be able to go all day without food, but I need three full meals minimum

Frankly, I feel better about my habits when I've worked out, even if I eat way more that day because working out makes me hungry.